Brett Jacobson, founder of the Hawai‘i Island
beverage companyHawaiian Ola,was sure he could get people to like his noni
drinks if he could just get them to take a sip. But that wasn’t easy. Although
noni has been used medicinally in Hawai‘i for generations—it’s believed to
boost the immune system—it has a well-deserved reputation for tasting downright
disgusting. The smell, which is akin to rancid cheese, hits you first. The
bitter taste gets you next, making your face pucker. It’s a lethal combination.
The store buyers whom Jacobson approached balked. No way were they putting noni
on their shelves. But Jacobson persisted. “If you don’t like it, you can spit
it in my face,” he told them. “That’s how serious I am.”

Six years ago Jacobson bought some subprime
farmland in Miloli‘i, sight unseen, and moved from California to Hawai‘i
Island. He didn’t know what he was going to farm, but he found his opportunity
growing wild on the side of the road. “Noni can grow anywhere, and it also has
cultural significance,” he says. “I thought if we can create a demand for
something like this, then it’s a home run.”

However, he still had to make a beverage that
people wouldn’t spit back at him. In his test kitchen Jacobson blended noni
with other local fruit juices. After a year of trials, he arrived at Hawaiian
Ola’s first product, a 2.5-ounce noni energy shot. The formula combines local,
organic juices such as liliko‘i and pineapple with more than an ounce of organic
noni juice.

And the taste? It’s tangy, sweet and thick
like a smoothie. Hawaiian Ola now makes several flavors of sparkling noni
beverages, and the generous portion of noni they contain is barely detectable
in any of them. Jacobson’s palatable approach to noni has softened the
resistance from store buyers, and Hawaiian Ola products can now be found in
hundreds of retail outlets statewide. The lumpy, greenish fruit’s foul
reputation may linger, but thanks to the beverage industry, Jacobson says,
“noni has been given a second chance.”